Here's what I've done with one of those kits a couple of times now ... I boil up 200-ish g grated ginger root, with the juice and rind of a lemon, a cinnamon stick and 15g of crushed coriander seeds, all boiled in a ltr or two of water for around 10-15 minutes ... all of that goes into the FV (no sieving) and 1 can of Coopers Ginger Beer Kit gets added along with 500g DME, 1kg brown sugar and 250g malto-dextrin ... that gets diluted to 20 ltrs and fermented with the kit yeast

The Coopers kit is full of artificial sweeteners (you can make that kit as a "non-alcoholic" ginger beer by diluting and only adding priming sugar for carbonation if you want, but made up like this it'll end up 4-ish% ABV) but the extra spices (I feel) and the body from the DME and malto-dextrin help to cover that "artificial" taste up a bit ... MrsB and I like the resulting drink, ends up a little like a sort of alcoholic version of a Fentiman's Ginger Beer, but other people that have tried it have disliked the taste of the artificial sweeteners

I guess now that you have the kit though, you're going to need to do something with it ... good luck with whatever you decide

Here's what I've done with one of those kits a couple of times now ... I boil up 200-ish g grated ginger root, with the juice and rind of a lemon, a cinnamon stick and 15g of crushed coriander seeds, all boiled in a ltr or two of water for around 10-15 minutes ... all of that goes into the FV (no sieving) and 1 can of Coopers Ginger Beer Kit gets added along with 500g DME, 1kg brown sugar and 250g malto-dextrin ... that gets diluted to 20 ltrs and fermented with the kit yeast

The Coopers kit is full of artificial sweeteners (you can make that kit as a "non-alcoholic" ginger beer by diluting and only adding priming sugar for carbonation if you want, but made up like this it'll end up 4-ish% ABV) but the extra spices (I feel) and the body from the DME and malto-dextrin help to cover that "artificial" taste up a bit ... MrsB and I like the resulting drink, ends up a little like a sort of alcoholic version of a Fentiman's Ginger Beer, but other people that have tried it have disliked the taste of the artificial sweeteners

I guess now that you have the kit though, you're going to need to do something with it ... good luck with whatever you decide

Cheers, PhilB

Thanks Phil,

This sounds like a cracking recipe. I love ginger so the idea of adding the extra root ginger definitely appeals. Presumably you brewed it short to 20 litres to get the abv up to 4%?

I'm hoping to get this done as a Christmas tipple so the cinnamon stick will definitely give it some festive flavour!

Here's what I've done with one of those kits a couple of times now ... I boil up 200-ish g grated ginger root, with the juice and rind of a lemon, a cinnamon stick and 15g of crushed coriander seeds, all boiled in a ltr or two of water for around 10-15 minutes ... all of that goes into the FV (no sieving) and 1 can of Coopers Ginger Beer Kit gets added along with 500g DME, 1kg brown sugar and 250g malto-dextrin ... that gets diluted to 20 ltrs and fermented with the kit yeast

The Coopers kit is full of artificial sweeteners (you can make that kit as a "non-alcoholic" ginger beer by diluting and only adding priming sugar for carbonation if you want, but made up like this it'll end up 4-ish% ABV) but the extra spices (I feel) and the body from the DME and malto-dextrin help to cover that "artificial" taste up a bit ... MrsB and I like the resulting drink, ends up a little like a sort of alcoholic version of a Fentiman's Ginger Beer, but other people that have tried it have disliked the taste of the artificial sweeteners

I guess now that you have the kit though, you're going to need to do something with it ... good luck with whatever you decide

Cheers, PhilB

Thanks Phil,

This sounds like a cracking recipe. I love ginger so the idea of adding the extra root ginger definitely appeals. Presumably you brewed it short to 20 litres to get the abv up to 4%?

I'm hoping to get this done as a Christmas tipple so the cinnamon stick will definitely give it some festive flavour!

Also I've got a bag of DME which is unopened but has gone hard. It's past is BBE date, but I never pay much attention to those and I'd hate to chuck it! Should I break it up first or just chuck it in the boiling water and hope it disolves?!

Maltodextrin is an unfermentable sugar, it adds a bit of body and helps with head retention ... as explained over there ...

Chris Colby, in Beer and Wine Journal (link) wrote:To decrease fermentability, you would add ingredients to your recipe that yield unfermentable carbohydrates in the wort. Maltodextrin is one such ingredient. Maltodextrin is a carbohydrate that brewers yeast cannot ferment. It is a white powder (that is fairly hard to dissolve), which is flavorless to slightly sweet. All it does is increase your final gravity and add mouthfeel. Many old-school homebrew recipes called for maltodextrin, but fewer modern recipes do. You tend to see it most often in recipes for dark, malty beers. Adding up to 8.0 oz. (230 g) to a 5 gallon (19 L) beer will yield a more “chewy” beer, without overdoing it and ending up with an overly viscous concoction. Maltodextrin also reputedly helps with your foam.

... if you don't have it and can't get it (if you don't have a nearby homebrew shop, body-builders and gym-jockeys use it as an energy booster apparently, so you might well find it in your local chemist or stockist of those protein powder supplements)... then you could just leave it out and you'd end up with a slightly thinner Ginger Beer ... alternatively, you could use a kilo of beer kit enhancer and 250-500g of sugar, instead of the sugar and maltodextrin (since beer kit enhancer is 1/3 - 1/2 maltodextrin anyway)

As for the DME ... out of date kit, out of date DME, chuck it all in, what else are you going to do with it ... if you're worried about it not dissolving, chuck it in to the pan with the other stuff you're boiling. 15 mins on the stove should get any lumps dissolved

Thanks Phil, appreciate the response and that's great that I can use I up the DME. I've got 2 X 1kg bags and they're both rock solid lumps! If I can use the DME in place of the maltodextrin then I'll chuck a whole bag of DME in with the sugar, ginger etc and boil it all up together.

I've cleaned out on pressure barrel for my wherry to go in so will clean the other one out tomorrow in prep for the ginger